514 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



to flesh. The weight of calves runs all the way from 50 

 to 125 pounds, the average being somewhere in the neigh- 

 borhood of 80 pounds. The average weight of lambs, large, 

 intermediate and small breeds, is somewhere in the vicinity 

 of 7 to 8 pounds. The average weight of pigs of the dif- 

 ferent breeds is somewhere between 2 and 2^2 pounds. 



Variations in weights of animals. The live weight 

 of animals varies so much from day to day, that in experi- 

 ments which call for frequent weighings, it becomes a dis- 

 turbing factor to the extent of leading to incorrect con- 

 clusions, unless the weights are taken as the average of 

 several weighings rather than as single. These variations 

 occur in weights taken at different hours the same day or 

 on successive days, insomuch, that even with animals that 

 are neither gaining nor losing in flesh, the same weight 

 precisely can seldom or never be attained from weighing at 

 different times. 



These variations are relatively more pronounced in cat- 

 tle and sheep than in horses and swine, owing probably to 

 the less relative capacity in the digestive organs of the latter 

 to hold large quantities of food, and to the shorter period 

 during which it is retained in the system. But even in the 

 case of horses, the difference in live weight from day to 

 day has been not less than 25 pounds, though weighed at 

 the same hour each morning and before any food or water 

 had been given to them. The difference in the daily weigh- 

 ings of mature cattle similarly weighed has, in some in- 

 stances, exceeded 50 pounds. 



These variations are the outcome chiefly: (i) Of the 

 different amounts of food consumed and retained in the 

 system, and (2) of the different amounts of water drunk 

 and also retained beyond the time when the weights were 

 taken. They are also influenced to some extent by the in- 

 crease or loss in flesh, by the water content of the tissues, 

 and in the case of animals in milk by the amount of milk 

 withdrawn. 



